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Article six (6) Ambient physical activity the key to weight control and health |
Posted by Administrator (admin) on Jun 04 2009 |
As the warmer weather of summer approaches the need to shed some
winter padding escalates to a top 3 priority. The rush to the gym, PT studio
or even an organised sport for a formal organised and disciplined
exercise regime becomes parmount before wearing limb revealing
clothing let alone a bathing suit.
Although these formal activities have high merit and value in changing
body composition other more unconscious ways can be utilised. Ways
that already exist in day to day life that have drifted from conscious
awareness, almost forgotten and yet easily reactivated. Ways so simple
that many scoff at how effective, efficient and ease the methodology.
The method - AMBIENT ACTIVITY.
When doing seminars and work shops on the benefits of activity for
weight control and health the number one excuse for not being able to
do exercise would be lack of time due to other commitments. And with
more than 60% of the Australian Male population fat and overweight
there seems to be a need to re-evaluate how to manage time to include
some daily moderate activity and instill the importance of activity in
weight control and health. From what I have observed the balk to
making a commitment to increasing activity levels comes from the
impression that some form of formal exercise regime has to be adhered
to. A person has to huff and puff doing exercise classes, weight lifting
programs or running endless kilometers must be undertaken for benefits
to be received. Formal exercise programs do have benefit and merit
although the real benefit comes from increasing what I call ambient
physical activity.
AMBIENT ACTIVITY
Ambient activity describes the movement humans do moving around
day to day. The background movement not noticed so much as they
become unconscious habitual patterns - excepted as normal part of
living. 100 years ago ambient activity levels were higher than levels today. In the past people would be involved in work requiring more
intense activity more frequently and for longer periods of time - all
excepted as a normal part of living. Today the levels of ambient activity
have dropped due to a multple of effort saving devices - cars, order in
food, home delivery, computers to name a few. Moving less has become
the norm. Exercise seems to be a luxury rather than a essential part of the
living process.
THE \'ONE MINUTE\' OPPORTUNITY
Increasing ambient activity relies on taking the innitative to be
consciously aware of when these opportunities do naturally occur in our
day to day movement.
This would include day to day opportunities for activity which, when
added up over 24 hours can make the difference to weight control and
health. Although these increments may only be a few minutes of exertion,
when added up they can result in 60 minutes or more of moderate
activity over the day. When these daily ambient physical activity
opportunities accumulate over weeks, months and years they become
part of daily life habits allowing for improved health and weight control.
At first a conscious effort needs to be made to find and take advantage
of these ambient activities opportunities. The question to ask would be.
What can I do to increase my movement and physical activity through out
the day? Remember it could take as little as one minute of exertion and
accumulating 60 times one minute could do the trick. The idea involves
moving the whole body in some way so that the heart rate and breathing
increases slightly, although not to the point where you are gasping for
breath and the heart is pounding through the chest.
MEASURING YOUR AMBIENT ACTIVITY
Keeping a conscious track of increasing ambient activity can for some
be difficult especially with heavy work commitments and contracts to
fullfil.To assist those in such a situation the utilisation of a pager size,
motion sensor called CALTRAC could be the answer. The CALTRAC UNIT
clips onto clothing at the waist position and when calibrated with your
personal data [age, weight, height and sex] measures via the use of
sensitive accelerometers your movement. The on board computer chip
uses a program which calculates the energy to move your body mass
and provides a digital read out of energy used [calories] and displays an
updated reading every two mintues. The CALTRAC unit gives immediate
feedback as to the value of ambient activity [value for effort!]. The
CALTRAC adds up all your one minute efforts for you giving a daily total
of calories burnt during moving throughout the day. Once you have
established what your initial daily calorie burn - prior to increases in
activity - making an increase of as little as 100 calories above the daily
total figure will start the fat loss process. Many when using the CALTRAC
find that they can easliy surpass the minimum of 100 extra calories burnt ......150, 200, 250 and for some even more, accelerating the fat loss
process. These increases in calories burnt aslo equate to improve health
and fitness. The outstanding feature of CALTRAC resides in the ability to
give moment to moment feedback as to your progress for the day,
allowing you to make adjustments to reach your daily goal.
Examples of increasing ambient activity:
• Park the car a few hundred meters from where you intend to shop.
• Walk briskly rather the at a slow pace.
• Park the car at the furthermost end of the shopping mal car park.
• Walk up and down every isle in the supermarket.
• Take several trips to bring the groceries in form the car.
• Walk the children part of the way to school instead of dropping them
at the front gate.
• Do some gardening
• Walk the dog
• Play with the children instead of watching them
• Wash the car by hand
• Do the house cleaning in a vigorous manner
Make a list of the possible ambient physical activities you can and will do
during the day. If you can include a daily walk for 20 or 30 minutes as
well, fantastic.
Consider how many hours per week you may be watching the television.
With this type of activity program there are no excuses only the result of
improved health and weight control.